One of our favorite day trip locations is Charlottesville. Since it is an hour or so away, it makes an easy getaway from Richmond. We have been visiting Carter's Mountain Orchard for a while, but this was our first time visiting Chiles Peach Orchard.
Last summer we weren't able to join all their family friendly events because I was 9 months pregnant and then we had a newborn, but we can't wait to attend them! A few of the notable summer events are: Wind Down Wednesdays, The Sunset Series, pancake breakfasts on Saturdays, and The Ol' Fashioned Peach Festival. Check here for the calendar.
Here's how our adventure went:
We left Richmond at 9 on a week day, during G's naptime. The trip was really easy on 64, and we arrived by 10:30.
I checked in with staff inside the open air market, purchased our baskets & they told me which areas to go in. This was perfect activity for social distancing. The rows were marked with orange ribbon, and only one picking group could go on a row at a time.
Before we started picking, we had some homemade cider donuts - these are our favorite!
We decided to pick peaches first since they were the closest to the market. The paths in the orchard and fields are gravel, dirt and grass. Our umbrella stroller worked on the gravel path to the orchard.
It was really hot during our trip, so GiGi and G sat on a picnic blanket in the shade in the orchard. There's a lot of shaded areas in the orchard, so if you have little ones, bring a blanket in case you need a break!
After picking picking peaches, we went to the blueberry fields. GiGi and G moved to the large picnic shelter while we were in the blueberry & strawberry fields. There are lots of picnic tables and space to play in the open air shelter.
My son enjoyed running down the rows of blueberries, and there was a big tree we were able to get a little bit of shade from.
We picked strawberries last, and we only did it for about 15 minutes. We were exhausted from the other activities, so we went to the market to grab snacks and rest.
We got more treats from the store to cool off, including the delicious frozen lemonade!
H loves farms, so he had the best time! He loved picking peaches the most, but it was harder for him to get ripe ones. He was able to get the best blueberries because the plants were his height and he knew how to pick the "blue" ones.
G enjoyed crawling in the orchards, looking at all the plants, and playing with the fruit we picked.
We left at 1:30, and the trip home was very easy: everyone fell asleep! We drove by King Family Vineyard on the way out, so maybe our next trip we will combine both!